


I Hate It Here

by rethrin



Category: Franklin & Bash
Genre: Crying, Gen, Insomnia, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 20:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rethrin/pseuds/rethrin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after episode 302, this is a bit of Peter comforting Jared who can't sleep and who is not dealing so well with the loss of the man cave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Hate It Here

Jared closed the door carefully behind him, looking over at Peter who didn't even move, much less wake up. He frowned, opened the door again and closed it slightly less carefully. Still no reaction. Jared hated the stupid house with its stupid hard beds, and stupid ocean, and stupid steps that he kept tripping over, and stupid electricity that didn't work, and stupid doors that didn't wake people up.

He shuffled over to the bed. He waited there, thinking maybe Peter would just wake up from being looked at. Peter didn't, so he nudged the bed with his knee. Peter shifted, but only a little. Jared did it again, harder, and Peter's eyes blinked open.

"Oh, hey, sorry," Jared mumbled quickly. "I was just seeing if you were asleep."

"Huh? You okay?"

Jared nodded, of course he was. "Power's out."

"Oh." Peter was barely awake, but he tried the bedside light as though he didn't believe Jared's ability to tell if electricity was working. He flicked the switch a few times. "You know Infeld said that happens a lot round here. Probably be back on by morning."

Jared nodded again. "Yeah." He should probably leave, but he didn't.

"Can't sleep?"

Jared shrugged like it was nothing. "Was going to see if you wanted to play some Ultimate Zoo Warfare or something, but Pindy's on the couch and..." No power meant no video games, meant no tv, no internet, couldn't even read in the dark, nothing to take his mind off things at all. He could feel tears filling his eyes, and that felt like it had come out of nowhere even though it had been building for hours. "Thought if you were awake we could... hang out or something."

Peter glanced over at the cheap plastic alarm clock they'd picked up at the drugstore. It was about half three in the morning and they had a meeting first thing, Jared had no business keeping him awake right now, he knew that. 

"Sorry."

Peter shook his head, no irritation in his eyes, just sleepiness. He started to sit up, leaning back against the headboard. "Sure you're okay?" 

Jared nodded again.

"You want something to eat?"

Jared shook his head. Peter caught his hand, pulling him to sit on the bed with him.

"Dude, you're freezing."

"I was out on the deck."

He'd sat out there for a couple of hours trying to feel tired before giving up and coming back inside, cold and empty. 

"Okay, well come here." Peter shifted over in the bed, lifting up the covers to let Jared climb in beside him. Jared only thought about it for a second before doing just that, the warmth of the sheets where Peter had been lying was like heaven. He took a few minutes to enjoy it, sitting on his hands to warm them.

"Can I have this room instead?"

"You got the bigger one."

"Your bed's softer than mine. And you're further from the water, it's really loud."

"Did you shut your window?"

"Yes, I shut my window..." He was going to argue with Peter for thinking he was simple, but the tears were back in his eyes and suddenly breathing was difficult. "I hate it here." He sounded stupid and he knew it, and he didn't care. 

Peter slid an arm around him, pulling him to lie down. Jared made half hearted movements to say it was okay and he didn't need to and he'd be fine in a second. But he ended up wrapped in Peter's arms all the same, Peter perfectly relaxed next to him, his hand stroking up and down Jared's back as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Peter didn't say anything, and Jared got the idea he could stay there absolutely as long as he wanted without anything being difficult between them. 

"I know it's not Pindy's fault," Jared said after a few minutes, a few deep breaths "but I think we should kill him."

Earned him a snort of laughter and a nod. "Yeah, okay."

"That mean you'll help?"

"Nope, but I'll give you a great defence."

"He burned down our house. All our stuff."

"And I will visit you in prison, bring you cigarettes and cookies."

"I'm going to prison? Dude, you are a sucky lawyer."

"You're guilty and half the judges in LA hate you. I'll work out a good deal for you, a nice open prison, lots of visitors, maybe a farm."

That was something, but he'd rather have Peter with him in his cell. "What if we just wound him?"

That made Peter smile again, but he still shook his head. Jared harruphed and fell quiet for a few minutes. Peter had stopped rubbing his back at some point and Jared didn't know how to make it start again. He was feeling cold on the inside, where no amount of blankets could reach him.

"I don't like living here, I want to go home." It came out without him thinking and he knew it was childish but it was true and he was tired and Peter wouldn't judge him.

"I know. Me too."

Jared wiped at tears before they started falling down his cheeks, frowned at himself for being stupid. 

"I miss it all the time. It was the first place that was mine." First place he'd ever really been happy. "Ours," he corrected himself quietly. "And I thought... I guess I figured I'd grow old there. I was going to have that..." Even though he wouldn't have other things, he thought, but didn't say. "And now we don't have anything, all of our stuff. We don't even have an office." He didn't know if that would make sense but somehow the wall in the office was as bad as losing the cave, made it so much harder. And Peter nodded, understood. When Jared looked up at him there were tears in his eyes too. Jared frowned at that and hugged in tighter to him for a while. 

"We'll find another place," Peter said eventually. "Or we'll rebuild. The Cave Mark 2, it could be our masterpiece. We can make more space outside, put in a pool. One where you can swim right into the lounge, maybe a slide from the balcony."

Jared swallowed a huge lump of hurt, bit back on everything he wanted to say. It wouldn't be the same and they didn't have time. They didn't have time to make somewhere that would be their home, not the way the cave was. Because Peter was going to move out and marry some wife or something and then die first. And Jared would be on his own in a house that wasn't even Peter's home, somewhere that wouldn't remember him, with no one to cook for him. And now he didn't have anything, nothing that Peter had ever given him, nothing that was theirs, nothing from their last twenty years except the photos on his phone. He tried to nod, but his breathing was broken again.

Peter's hand cupped the back of Jared's neck, his thumb rubbed behind his ear, and he just held him for a while while Jared brought himself back, took long breaths and calmed down. 

"It'll be okay," Peter whispered and he sounded like he was reassuring them both. Jared nodded. It would be okay. "We didn't lose anything so important, Jared. Not really."

That was a total lie and Jared's face said so. 

"I mean we still have ea-" He half coughed. "Pindy and Carmen made it out of there, nobody got hurt, you know?"

Yeah. Jared realised he hadn't even been thinking about how much worse it might have been. He reached out without thinking, his hand stroked over Peter's arm. He nodded, they'd been lucky, he hadn't thought of it that way.

Peter shifted a little until Jared was more comfortable beside him, albeit a little further away.

"We can swap rooms if you want to."

Jared nodded contentedly. If he was going to embarrass himself like this he might as well get a comfortable bed out of it.

"But you have to be nice to Pindy."

"Yeah, I know. It's not like we didn't nearly burn the place down a few times."

"Nearly," Peter said. "Emphasis on the nearly."

Jared smiled, and moved the pillow to make himself more comfortable, feeling better, tired at last.

"You want me to go?" Peter asked quietly, making absolutely no move to leave.

Jared shook his head and inched closer.

"You want me to close the window?"

Jared shook his head again. The water wasn't so loud any more, and the cool breeze rolling off the ocean was as good an excuse as any to keep Peter close.


End file.
